Loving Him
by Azure-x-Roze
Summary: The Shikon no Tama when complete can grant one wish. Some may want power and riches. Others may just want to be respected. However, some just want to be who they are. "Nobody wants a hanyou in their life." "But Inuyasha, I love you just the way you are" she smiled.


**AN: **Please leave any feedback or comments in a review, as it would be much appreciated. I hope you enjoy this revised version.

Blue eyes gazed at her stoic friend sadly as Sango mourned the loss of her little brother. Kohaku had valiantly given up the shard keeping him alive in order to tip the scales and defeat Naraku. The battle had been turning against them however; help had arrived in the form of the boy. Somber eyes made up the majority of the room and as Kagome gazed around her circle of friends, she couldn't take the oppressing feeling of their hollow victory against Naraku anymore.

She quietly slipped out of Kaede's hut and headed towards the forest. Perhaps a walk might help, she mused to herself.

As she reached the Goshinboku, she settled against its trunk, toying with the completed jewel in her hand. She hated it. She hated the fact this little bauble had caused so much pain, so much strife. Her best friend no longer had her brother. Kouga did not have his pack. Miroku no longer had any family. Shippou didn't have his parents and Inuyasha…Inuyasha finally had to say goodbye to Kikyou.

Kagome was so caught up in her musings she failed to notice his presence near her.

"Oi! Do you want that thing to get stolen? And just after we'd completed it!" Inuyasha snapped at her.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome jumped up, almost dropping the jewel in the process. She hastily secured it and sighed. Speak of the devil she though sullenly, glaring at Inuyasha. "You scared the life out of me!"

"Yeah, well you're still here aren't you?" Her head snapped up at that. Hurt blossomed in her and she tried to keep the tears at bay. The way he had said it, he almost made it seem like he wished another were in her place.

"Do you want me gone that much Inuyasha?" She winced as her voice cracked on saying his name. Inuyasha's shocked gaze met hers. She began to walk away when it seemed like he wasn't going to answer when his voice made her stop.

"Kagome wait! I didn't mean it like that" he tried to explain.

Trying to keep a lid on her rising temper, which had reared up to push away the sadness, she turned on him. "Then how exactly did you mean it Inuyasha, please explain to me."

"I'm sorry, okay." She stared at him, surprised. He flushed under her stare but ploughed on. "I shouldn't have snapped it's just, I don't want anything else to happen because of that thing. After all the trouble we went through to get it" he trailed off and she nodded in understanding.

"What should we do with it?" she questioned him. "Have you thought about it?"

He shrugged.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You honestly haven't thought about what you want to do with the jewel? What happened to becoming a full youkai?"

His eye twitched, the only sign of him having heard her.

"Ne, Inuyasha? Why did you ever want to be a full youkai in the first place?" she asked, curiosity peaked.

He finally exploded, growling at her "it's none of your damn business wench!"

"Inuyasha, you made it my business every time you dragged me all over feudal Japan to find more jewel shards." She muttered. "I think I have a right to know."

"Why do you want to know so bad Kagome? Why is it even important?" he wished she would drop the topic already. He had thought about this moment. The moment they had the completed jewel and a choice had to be made. He had dreamed for years of using the jewel and becoming a fully-fledged youkai, to leave behind his weak, human heritage once and for all.

She wouldn't understand his reasons, she couldn't. She had never been looked at with eyes filled with hate because of who he was, because of what he was. He was a hanyou. Neither a full demon and nor was he fully human. He was a hanyou, something that both races frowned upon. He was the symbol of the union of the two worlds and neither race wished to acknowledge him or this fact, this notion that they could get along and live in peace.

He would never be accepted as he was. He was the middle ground; a visual example of what was possible if differences were put aside. Humans feared his mere presence, classing him as an abomination and youkai treated him as a weaker being, inferior to them due to his human heritage.

Kagome had been born a human. She was and always had been a human. She would never be able to understand how deep his wounds ran he thought to himself. No one had ever accepted his hanyou self which was why her response shocked him out of his musings.

"It's important Inuyasha because, you are important" she said softly, knowing he'd be able to hear her with his acute senses.

"What?" He was literally lost for words. He wondered what he had done to ever meet a person such as Kagome as warmth filled him and a faint flush crossed his cheeks.

He tried to brush it off but she was having none of it. "Inuyasha" she said exasperatedly, "surely you know by now how much you mean to me, to us all" she added the others quickly to distract him from just how heavy that message was with unspoken words between them. "Why do you need to be a full youkai?"

Her question brought back his previous thoughts and the warmth Kagome's words had brought left him. "I'm an outcast!" he whispered scathingly, willing her to understand the trouble his birthright had always brought him. "Nobody wants a hanyou in their life. Neither did Kikyou!" he vented, pain piercing his heart at the mention of her name. Kagome gasped, not having realised the obvious sooner.

Even the woman he had loved had not loved him for him but, for who he could be. Despite being the Shikon no Miko, Kikyou had agreed to give him the jewel should he choose to become human and spend the rest of their lives together as such. During their meetings, she could never bring herself to touch him, even chastely. He mused now that perhaps his and her love had been borne out of a mutual loneliness, of never having someone who understood that sometimes life left you alone and lonely.

Comprehension descended on Kagome. All his life people wanted to change him, for him to be something he was not born to be she thought sadly as gazed at him. But I don't want you to change Inuyasha, I never have.

Inuyasha had continued ranting, going as far as to confess the only person who had loved him or shown him any sort of affection had been his mother Izayoi and she had been ostracized for her troubles along with him. "Kikyo wanted human Inuyasha" he continued. "Human! Not a hanyou. Human! She had always wanted me to change myself…She couldn't, no she wouldn't acc-" Inuyasha's ramblings were silenced by Kagome's lips as she gathered her courage and kissed him.

He stood still and she began to pull away when reality dawned on him and he pulled her closer. All he could feel, all he could sense was Kagome. Her taste, her touch, it surrounded him and filled him with the same warmth Kagome seemed to permanently exude. Her hand snaked up his neck and into his hair; pulling him even closer to her as she went after the ears she had loved ever since she first saw them.

His mind went blank and he didn't even notice her other hand reaching around his neck. In one swift move his rosary was off and Kagome's eyes twinkled before him. "Inuyasha, I love you just the way you are" Kagome whispered, the rosary twirling around a finger.

"Osuwari" she smiled teasingly.

Inuyasha winced, waiting for the cursed rosary to plough him into the ground as it always did but opened his eyes when nothing happened. It dawned on him she had taken off his rosary, showcasing how far they had come from the encounter with Mistress Centipede.

The very thing that had protected her from him going after her and the jewel was now gone and marked the trust that had grown between them.

He smirked and tugged her back to him, kissing her. "I love you Kagome."

She barely had a chance to whisper back "I love you too Inuyasha" as his lips once again captured hers.

**Edited: **Thursday 25th July 2013


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